Something Like Christmas
by theboywiththebread
Summary: Though neither of them officially celebrate the holiday at the time, Ivan and Yao decide to spend Christmas together anyway. RoChu. Oneshot. Request.


**If you're wondering why I deleted this story and why I'm now publishing it again under a different title, it turns out I fucked up pretty badly and the completely random city/year combination I originally picked to set the story was really not the best choice. A big thank you to the reviewer who pointed that out. Anyway, I've edited all specific mentions to year and location out of the story, so the setting is now just _somewhere in Russia, sometime during the second world war_.**

**Anyway, this fic was a request from heir-conditioning on tumblr, who asked for "something involving their first Christmas together." It was previously published as the second chapter of _RoChu Requests_, but I decided to make it its own story.**

* * *

Yao did not celebrate Christmas. Though there were some in China who did – Christianity did not have a strong presence there, but it did have a presence – the nation himself was not one of them. Most years, the twenty-fifth of December passed without him giving a single thought to the day's significance, but the past few years, during which he had spent so much time with has fellow Allies, had been different. Alfred looked forward to Christmas with childlike sense of wonder, and while Arthur and Francis were not quite as excited about the holiday as the American, they did celebrate it.

Though Yao liked to make it clear that he didn't care one bit about Western traditions such as Christmas, he couldn't help feeling a little left out. He may have ended up giving in and admitting that he would rather like to be invited to one of Alfred's extravagant Christmas parties if it hadn't been for Ivan. While Yao had never celebrated Christmas, Ivan had once done, but didn't any longer. It had been more than two decades since Christmas, and religion as a whole, had fallen out of favour with Russia's new government, which meant that Yao wasn't alone in not observing the holiday.

One day in mid-December, the conversation at one of the Allied meetings had turned to Christmas. Yao had let his mind wander, and had been fantasizing about lunch when the mention of his name had caught his attention.

"Who said I was going to be alone while the rest of you are celebrating Christmas? Yao and I will be spending the day together, won't we?"

That was the first that Yao had heard about it. He had almost wanted to say no, just to make it clear that Ivan did not have the right to make plans that involved him without even telling him, but he stopped himself. If Ivan didn't want to spend the day alone while the others were having fun together, then he wasn't the only one.

"Yes, we are," was all he said.

* * *

A week passed before Ivan had mentioned the possibility of them spending Christmas together again. This time, the two of them were alone together when he brought it up.

"So," he had said, handing Yao a piece of paper with an address scrawled on it, "this is where you can find me on Christmas Day."

Yao had taken the piece of paper and stuffed it into his pocket without looking at it.

"What makes you think that I will be looking for you on Christmas Day?" he had asked.

"I thought we had agreed to spend the day together, but I suppose that you just said that so that I wouldn't embarrass myself in front of the others," said Ivan, "I was really looking forward to it, but if you don't want to…"

Ivan had looked as if he was genuinely hurt that Yao didn't want to spend Christmas with him, which surprised the other nation.

"Don't worry, Ivan, I do want to spend Christmas with you," said Yao

The change in Ivan's demeanour had been instantaneous. A small smile had appeared on his face, which had quickly turned into a grin, and then all of a sudden he had flung his arms around Yao and pulled him into a friendly embrace.

"Yay! Thank you so much!" he had shouted.

"Don't hug people without asking first," was all Yao had said in reply, but he had patted Ivan on the back and given him a quick smile when he pulled away to assure the Russian that he wasn't actually mad at him.

* * *

That was how Yao ended up in the freezing cold streets of a Russian city on Christmas Day with the crumpled piece of paper on which Ivan's address was written in one hand and a bottle of vodka – a hastily bought Christmas present for his friend – in the other. He had not been expecting it to be so cold – he had visited Ivan's country before, but never in the middle of winter. By the time he finally reached the address that Ivan had given him, his body was shivering, his teeth were chattering, and the hand wrapped around the neck of the bottle was very nearly frozen in place.

When Ivan opened the door, Yao fell into his arms, happy to see his friend and even happier to feel his warmth.

"I'm sorry," Yao said, "but it's so cold. How can you stand this kind of weather?"

"It's all I've ever known, so I'm used to it," Ivan said, "that and I wear lots of layers."

Ivan led Yao into the house and sat him down in the living room, right beside a roaring fireplace.

"I'd offer you my coat, but I rather need it myself," he said, "wait here, and I'll be back in a minute with something to warm you up."

Ivan disappeared into another room, and returned a few moments later with a pale orange woollen blanket which he draped over Yao's shoulders before sitting down beside him on the worn leather sofa.

"Thanks," said Yao, handing Ivan the vodka bottle, "and Merry Christmas."

Ivan took a moment to inspect the label, and then flashed Yao a grin.

"How did you know that this was my favourite brand?" he asked.

"I didn't. The label is in Russian, and I have absolutely no idea what it says," Yao replied.

"Lucky guess," Ivan said, "would you like some? It'll warm you up."

"Sure, why not?" Yao asked.

Ivan handed the now-open bottle back to Yao, who took a swig.

"It's nice. Reminds me a little of baiju," he commented.

"You like it?" Ivan asked, a hint of surprise in his voice.

"I do. Why? Weren't you expecting me to?" Yao asked.

Ivan shrugged his shoulders.

"I've never seen you drink alcohol before. To be honest, I didn't think you did."

Yao held the bottle out to Ivan, who took it from him. Their hands brushed together momentarily, and Yao noticed how nice and warm Ivan's was compared to his own.

"You're still so cold," Ivan commented as he brought the bottle up to his mouth.

He took a long drink and set the vodka bottle down on the floor in front of the couch.

"Thank you, Yao. I have a gift for you too," he said, "I'll go and get it for you now."

Ivan left the room, and while he was gone, Yao leaned over the armrest, his hands hovering close to the flames of the open fire. The blanket that Ivan had wrapped around him had warmed his body, but his hands and his face were still cold.

"Careful," Ivan said, having come back into the room so quietly that Yao didn't even realise that he was there, "you don't want to fall into the fireplace!"

"I won't," Yao said as he turned back around to face Ivan, who was holding something in his hands.

It was made of wood, though there were a number of dark patches on its light brown surface, and it looked to be around six inches tall. As Ivan sat down beside him and handed the object to him, Yao realised that the dark patches were the markings of a panda.

"You bought me a panda doll," Yao said, giving Ivan a warm smile, "how wonderful."

"I didn't just buy it! I couldn't find any panda matryoshka dolls already in existence, so I paid to have this one made especially for you," said Ivan.

"Really? You certainly put a lot of thought into it, I'm very grateful," Yao said, gently touching the wooden panda's face, "I'm beginning to feel bad that my gift for you was nowhere near as special."

Ivan shook his head.

"Don't be silly! There's no need to feel bad," he said.

"That word you said before, mat-something, what did that mean?" Yao asked.

"Matryoshka? It is the word for this kind of doll – if you open it and look inside, there is another doll within, and another inside that one, and so on," said Ivan.

As Ivan spoke, Yao noticed the very faint line around the wooden doll's middle where the two halves had been put together. Carefully, as not to break it, he pulled the top part of the doll from the bottom. Sure enough, there was a smaller wooden panda inside, just as Ivan had said there would be.

"How many are there?" Yao asked as he opened the second panda to find a third one inside.

"Just four. Some matryoshka dolls have many more, but I wanted to put another gift inside this one, so I decided that there should be fewer," said Ivan.

"Another gift? I hope it's nothing too expensive, or you will really have put what I got you to shame," said Yao.

He opened the third panda and took a short moment to admire the even smaller one inside before pulling it open as well. Instead of another doll, this one contained a piece of paper and, puzzlingly, a leafy stem. Written on the paper was a message in Chinese – the characters were big and clumsily drawn, clearly the work of a beginner, but Yao still felt very flattered that Ivan had gone to the trouble of writing it in his language.

_Yao. The doll from my country meets the panda bear from yours. Merry Christmas. Ivan._

"This is really wonderful, Ivan. This panda matro… m-mastroyshka," Yao said, stumbling over the unfamiliar foreign word, "and the note, I am flattered that you would put so much effort into something for me. But I must ask – what is this plant? Is it supposed to be a really small Christmas tree, or is it a Russian Christmas tradition to give one of these to a friend?"

Ivan shook his head.

"The plant is part of a Christmas tradition, but not a Russian one. It's… a complicated story. Back when the holiday was still celebrated in my country, it was observed on January 7th, not today, and I would spend the day with my family. Today is different – it is December, and I am with you, not my sisters, and it is not a religious celebration, so I decided we could participate in a Christmas tradition that I have never participated in before," he said.

Ivan took the plant from inside the panda doll and held it above his head.

"This is called mistletoe, and it is said that when two people find themselves standing, or sitting, in our case, beneath it, they have to kiss," said Ivan.

Yao's eyes widened. He had gotten lost in Ivan's explanation of what was and wasn't a Russian Christmas tradition, but now he understood what everything that Ivan had said was leading up to – a request for a kiss.

Never before had Yao even _thought_ about kissing his northern neighbour, but he couldn't deny that right now, Ivan's lips looked very inviting. He leaned forward and gave Ivan a soft, slow kiss on the lips. Instead of pulling away when the kiss was over, Yao laid his head on Ivan's shoulder and pulled the woollen blanket tighter around his body.

Ivan wrapped his arms around Yao, careful not to knock the pieces of the panda matryoshka onto the floor as he brought him closer.

"That was nice," Yao said.

Ivan grinned.

"It was," he said, "very."

Yao closed his eyes for a moment and enjoyed the warmth of the body next to his. He wasn't going to admit it aloud, but the kiss was probably his favourite part of Ivan's Christmas gift for him.

* * *

**Are mistletoe kisses a tired cliche in Christmas themed fanfiction? I wouldn't know, but I rather hope not.**

**Anyway, I wanted to set it sometime during the early stage of their friendship, which meant setting it during a time when neither Russia nor China celebrated Christmas. I thought that might make the story difficult to write, but it actually gave the freedom to do whatever I wanted with their sort-of-Christmassy celebration.**


End file.
